


The Fisherman's Mermaid

by orphan_account



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Foot Fetish, M/M, Mermaids, mermaid au, merman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-04
Updated: 2013-02-04
Packaged: 2017-11-28 04:59:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/670527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik's rescued by a merman when the fishing boat he was on burst into flames. Now he goes back to the ocean to try and find the merman again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fisherman's Mermaid

**Author's Note:**

> Have always wanted to write a mermaid AU where Charles is incredibly fascinated by Erik's feet.

The waves push at Erik until he waked with a groan. There was salt water in his mouth and the soft flittering touches of white marble sand painted his face. His body ached like it’s been trampled on in a stampede and it hurt to breathe, but somehow he managed it. As he strained to get up, he felt the force akin to a man punching him in the guts, and he promptly fell back onto the sand.

The sun was unforgiving, bright but not scorching; he found it impossible to see against the light. There was a painful thump rattling inside his head as the memories begin to creep back to him: his heavy sack upon his back, the fisherman’s old ship, the thunderstorm and then the entire thing, bursting into flames, burning. He groaned in pain at the thought but otherwise felt unsettlingly calm at the recent turn of events.

Suddenly, there was a hand on his face, cupping his cheeks. Someone hovered over his body, blocking the sun from shining onto him and Erik allowed himself to peek through the crack of his eyelids. Said someone had the loveliest blue eyes Erik has ever seen, eyes so blue and gleaming they are comparable to the waters of Asratak. The young man had his brows knitted, lips bitten in worry, eyes searching across Erik’s face. The man dusted the sand off, blowing lightly at Erik’s face, only to cause him to shut his eyes and grunt.

“Don’t do that,” Erik mumbled.

The man’s eyes were wide with shock and embarrassment; he quickly pulled back, but his body was still pressed up against Erik’s side and Erik found that he didn’t have enough strength to care. It was warm and it felt nice.

When Erik’s eyes finally adjusted to the gleaming sunlight, he found himself staring at a man with brown chestnut hair and impossibly red lips. The man was propped up on his elbows and was topless. Erik frowned, his eyes trailing down the man’s back before he saw—

The man was a mermaid. He had an iridescent tail with shades of turquoise, green, blue and a little bit of purple. Erik should run, with the stories that he’s heard, it’s only natural that he ran without a second thought. But he didn’t. If anything, he felt completely at ease with the mermaid.

“You’re a mermaid,” he said as a matter of fact.

The boy’s expression fell flat, he looked pained and upset, confused.

Erik blinked, and not a second later, the mermaid was gone.

*

If the mates down at Rabbit’s Inn knew what he was doing they’d call him a fool. Not that he cared what others thought of him, he lived his life the way he wanted and it didn’t matter to him what others said—not that anyone said anything either way, they were mostly too terrified of him or they simply didn’t care. 

It was his fourth time out at sea before he spotted the mermaid again.

The mermaid, with his hair now pressed flat against his head, popped up from under the water about twenty metres away from Erik’s tiny boat. The mermaid didn’t move, so Erik didn’t move either; both creatures staring at each other with the vast ocean a wall between them.

The next minute passed with Erik’s brows imperceptibly beginning to knit together, his lips pressed into a firm line. There’s a moment where he wanted to move, break the tension between them both, but the mermaid was bobbing in the water, gently drifting with the waves and Erik realized he didn’t know what to do, what to say. Erik breathed harshly through his nose, his chest rising, and in that moment the mermaid dived back into the water.

“Wait, don’t go!” he was searching across the ocean before he could stop himself, the entire weight of his body leaning onto one side of the boat, almost tipping the whole darned thing over. He quickly caught himself, and landed heavily on his bum, cursing through gritted teeth.

Almost immediately, the mermaid was in front of him again, this time directly by the side of his boat, his cheeks lightly tinted with a rose pink.

“Are you alright?” the mermaid sounded somewhat breathy. Erik imagined the creature to have looked above and seen the boat rocking heavily against the glimmer of the sunlight.

“You speak English.”

“Do I?” the mermaid questioned. “That must mean you’re English then?”

“No, I’m actually German. But we migrated here when I was four, so technically I’m Genoshian now. And out here English is a common language between the people.” Erik slowly got up from where he had previously landed, back slightly hunched. He ventured forward, careful with his movements lest he frightened the mermaid away. The mermaid didn’t swim off, didn’t even flinch when Erik moved to kneel by the side of the boat so that he could observe the exotic creature.

For a while, he looked up at Erik, curious. He found the human interesting, the same way the human found the mermaid fascinating. Erik glanced into the water and spotted the mermaid’s tail, that iridescent tail gently swishing in the water, changing colours as it moved; Erik thinks it’s beautiful.

“You’re a mermaid,” Erik said all of a sudden.

“I can assure you, I am no maiden. As you can tell—or I hope you can, I am what you would call a man, in your hu- _man_ terms. From where I’m from, what I am is a merman, not a mermaid. I do not have full rounded breasts from which new-borns feed from. Neither do I have the capabilities to contribute to our diminishing population.” The merman sounded offended, but not irritated.

“I’m… sorry. I didn’t—”

“—that’s alright.” The merman was suddenly smiling from ear to ear. Erik frowned, slightly taken aback. Then he swam nearer and propped his elbows on the gunwales (top edge) of the boat, rocking it marginally. “I  um…” he was looking down at the bottom half of Erik’s body, “this might sound a bit odd or even terrifying, but could I possibly touch your legs, please?”

“What?”

“I-it’s completely fine if you don’t want me to, I know what the humans say about us, all the stories they tell their children. Half of it is complete exaggerated gibberish, but the other half is…as much as I’m embarrassed to admit, well, that half is completely true.”

“And which half would that be?”

“The one where we eat humans for dessert, and pick at their bones.” The merman grinned, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Don’t worry, I’m rather picky when it comes to dessert, I only eat the pretty ones.” He licked his lips in appreciation, taking in the sight of the man in front of him. “And you’re looking very pretty indeed.”

Erik practically broke out in cold sweat from hearing that. He needed every ounce of his self-control not to flinch in fear. Creatures of the sea can smell fear, they thrive on it.

“Oh, stop worrying yourself, I was only kidding. I can’t stand the taste of humans, it’s a bit like stale leftover fish. I can’t vouch for the others in my kingdom though, they’ve always had an odd craving for the weird.”

Erik lets go of a breath he didn’t even knew he was holding, and the merman laughed, his tail swishing around happily. Erik stared into the water. He wanted to touch the merman’s tail, run his hand down the length of it, he imagined it would feel like a combination of crocodile skin and fish scales. Except, he’s afraid he’d end up tipping over, and even more afraid of being pulled under while he was busy being distracted by that beautiful shimmer. So instead of braving the danger, he asked, “What’s your name? Do you have a name?”

“Charles. Charles Xavier. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. And you?” His head was leisurely resting on one arm now, the skin on his upper body had already dried in the sun and it drew attention to the freckles peppered on Charles’ shoulders and down his back. He looked so human; one wouldn’t have thought he was a merman if they hadn’t seen his lower half.

“Why do you have an English name? How is it you’re speaking our language?” Perfectly reasonable question to which Charles chuckled in what seemed to be amusement. 

“I’m not. You’re just hearing and seeing whatever it is your mind wants to so that we can communicate with each other. But in reality, I’m speaking in my own language while you’re speaking in yours.” Erik made a non-committal noise, he didn’t quite know how to believe what he’s being told. “I wish I could explain it to you, but it’s really rather… I can’t fully comprehend it myself.”

“I see.” Erik nodded.

“So… now that I’ve told you mine, it’s your turn to tell me yours?” Charles drawled, somehow still managing to keep his posh sounding English accent. Erik would remember to ask him about it later on.

“Excuse me?”

“Your name. I’ve told you mine, so it’s only polite for you to tell me yours.” Erik turned away, he’s not sure if he should, you never know what mermaids could do or if they performed black magic like the gypsies from his homeland.

“Go on, you can tell me.” Charles encouraged, crossing his arms on the edge of the boat while he rested his chin on them. He looked so eager and genuine, Erik thought, _to hell with it_.

“Erik. Erik Lehnsherr.”

Charles smiled, a toothy almost awe struck kind of smile. “Erik Lehnsherr,” he repeated, rolling the name over his tongue. “That’s a beautiful name, it suits you.”

“I—thank you.”

They were back to their awkward staring again. Well, mostly Charles staring with that incredibly astonished expression and Erik wanting to look except the rush of embarrassment he felt forced him to only take careful glances while he could. Charles’ hair had dried in the sun, it’s no longer flat and sticking to his head; now it almost seemed like it would be incredibly soft to touch, but not for the remains of salt clumping them together in locks. Erik wanted to wash his hair clean and shampoo it down, wanted to touch the freckles on his shoulders. It’s not before he saw his hand mere inches away from Charles’ face that he suddenly realized what the hell he was doing, he pulled his hand back so fast he could feel the boat rocking again.

Charles frowned at that, more of a pout of the lips than anything. His tone was tinged with disappointment when he said, “I have to go.”

Too soon, it was far too soon. Erik still had so many questions to ask, hadn’t even thanked him for saving his life.

“But before I go, do you think I could…is there any possibility you could let me touch your feet? I want to know what toes look like, I’ve never seen them clearly before. The fishermen always cover them with those ghastly things that they’re often wearing.” It was a peculiar request. Then again maybe not, given the fact that this was a merman he was speaking to; it would only be natural for him to want to know what feet look like.

“Please?”

Erik said nothing, mind working, contemplating. After a beat, he removed his sandals and leaned back, hands gripped onto the edge behind him so as to balance the weight of the boat while he stretched his left foot out in front of him. Charles grinned with glee, huffing lightly like he couldn’t believe his luck. Not wanting to frighten Erik, Charles moved slowly, left hand still grabbing to the edge while his other hand hovered inches away from the base of Erik’s foot.

The first touch was awkward, Charles’ fingers gently wrapped around Erik’s foot, his thumb stroking up the curve. It tickled slightly. Erik’s instinct was to kick and scramble away, but he pushed the urge down. Charles pressed his thumb a bit harder and Erik flinched, biting down on his lip to contain his yelp.

“Sorry, it’s just so…soft. I expected it to be harder, I think. More muscular, but this here,” Charles pressed again, from the middle all the way to his toes, “It’s so soft.”

Charles propped himself up on both elbows as he worked his tail to keep himself afloat. Now both hands were deftly exploring Erik’s foot, fingers tracing the veins, the curves—pressing, kneading, feeling. Charles held Erik’s big toe between his thumb and forefinger and squeezed lightly, moving it back and forth. He blinked inquisitively.

“These things are awfully weird, why do you have five of them? Why would you _need_ five on each foot?”

“For a better grip of the Earth beneath our feet, I suppose. But that was long before the invention of shoes.”

Charles gave a nod, and then went back to probing Erik’s foot until Erik felt himself practically melt under those hands. It was getting increasingly hard to balance his weight on the boat. If he could, he’d just lean right back and sigh into Charles’ touch while the sun lightly warmed his body; let his thoughts completely drift away. And then just as Erik did sigh in pleasure, Charles pulled Erik’s foot towards himself, and did the most incredulous thing. He tilted his head to the left and kissed Erik’s foot, pressed his lips to centre where the curve is.

Erik felt a shiver run through the entire length of his body. He must’ve been blushing because his face felt embarrassingly hot while Charles simply smiled at him like he’d just received the best gift anyone could possibly wish for.

“I have to go now, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Tomorrow? Erik hadn’t even thought it would be possible to even find the merman who saved his life, let alone be asked to see him again the next day.

“Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Charles beamed and pushed himself from the boat.

“Wait!” Erik grabbed at Charles’ hand before he dove back under. “I just wanted to say, thank you. For saving my life.”

“No, thank _you_ ,” Charles replied, smiling. He gave Erik’s knuckles a gentle kiss, and then went back into the water. 


End file.
